14. Region and Language

The
Region and Language settings affect the way Windows displays times,
dates, numbers, and currency. When you install Windows, chances are
good that the Region settings are already set for your locale. This is
certainly true if you purchase a computer with Windows 7 preinstalled
on it from a vendor in your country or area. The Region and Language
applet is found in the Clock, Language, and Region category and is also
available in Large Icons or Small Icons view.

Running this applet from the Control Panel displays the dialog box you see in Figure 28.
To change the settings, simply click the appropriate tab, and then
click the drop-down list box for the setting in question. Examples of
the current settings are shown in each section, so you don’t need to
change them unless they look wrong. The predefined standards are
organized by language and then by country. If you can’t find a standard
to your liking, you can always create a customized format by clicking
the Additional Settings button, which opens the Customize Format
multi-tabbed dialog.

Figure 28. Making changes to the Region and Language settings affects the
display of date, time, and currency in Windows applications that use
the internal Windows settings for such functions.

15. System

The
System Properties dialog box has long been perhaps the single most
important part of the Control Panel for determining what’s going on
inside your system. Windows 7 has drastically remodeled the look and
features of this Properties dialog box in the System applet (see Figure 29
to better show you what’s “under the hood.” Access System from the
System and Security category, from Large Icons or Small Icons view, or
by right-clicking Computer and selecting Properties.

Figure
29. The System applet in Windows 7 makes it easier than ever to view
important information about your system’s hardware, network settings,
and performance.

The
top of the main System window shows the Windows 7 edition in use. The
System section shows the Windows Experience Index, processor and RAM
information, and operating system type (32 bit or 64 bit).

Unlike
in Windows XP and earlier versions, which made you dig through tabs to
find the computer name, domain, and workgroup settings, they’re out
front in this version. If you can’t connect to other
computers, workgroup or domain name problems are often the culprit.
Click the Change Settings button at the right to change this
information.

Tip

Virtually
all “Windows 7-capable” systems on the market can run the 64-bit (x64)
version of Windows 7, which enables you to use more than 3GB of RAM and
create larger files. Should you? Install the x64 version only if can
obtain x64 drivers for your hardware and verify that your favorite
programs can run under x64 versions. Although x64 support is much more
widespread today than it was a couple of years ago, some hardware and
programs still support only the 32-bit version. Digital photography
fans in particular should note that 64-bit RAW codecs (necessary to
preview RAW files in Windows) are not yet available for some digital
cameras, or might be available only from third-party vendors.

Is
your version of Windows activated? Look at the Windows Activation
section of the dialog box to find out. If you need to change the
product key, click the Change Product Key button.

Remote Settings

Click Remote Settings in System’s Tasks list to open the Remote tab of the System Properties dialog box (see Figure 30). Use this tab to configure both Remote Assistance (top) and Remote Desktop (bottom) connections to your computer.

Figure 30. Use the Remote tab to configure Remote Assistance and to permit, deny, or configure Remote Desktop connections.

Note

Network
Level Authentication (NLA) is the more secure type of Remote Desktop
connection. Windows 7 includes NLA support. If you want to connect a
Windows XP client to a Windows 7 client running Remote Desktop with NLA
enabled, you must download and install the Terminal Services Client
(Remote Desktop Connection v6) on the Windows XP system. The Windows XP
system must be running Service Pack 2 or 3. You can also install this
update on a Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1.

System Protection

Click System Protection in the System window’s Tasks list to open the System Protection tab (see Figure 31)
of the System Properties dialog box. This tab is used to view and
create restore points that can be used by System Restore and to launch
System Restore. It also lets you select which drives to protect using
System Restore.

Figure 31. Use the System Protection tab to manage System Restore.

Advanced System Settings

Click
Advanced System Settings in the System window’s Tasks list to open the
Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog box. It has four buttons.
Three of these buttons, described next, are labeled Settings and are
contained within the Performance, User Profiles, and Startup and
Recovery sections.

The
Settings button under the User Profiles heading opens the User Profiles
dialog box. This interface is used to manage local and roaming profiles
stored on the local computer.

The
Settings button under the Startup and Recovery heading opens the
Startup and Recovery dialog box. This interface is used to configure
multibooting actions and how system failures are handled. If you have
installed Windows 7 in a multiboot configuration with an earlier
version of Windows, you can specify whether to run Windows 7 or the
earlier version as the default. You can also specify how long to wait
before starting the default OS (30 seconds is the preset value) and
whether to specify a time for displaying recovery options. By default,
Windows 7 writes an event to the system log in case of system failure
and restarts the system automatically. Clear check boxes to disable
either or both of these features. During a system failure, Windows 7
also automatically creates a kernel memory dump called MEMORY.DMP in the root folder of the system drive (normally C:).
Other debugging operations include no memory dump, a small memory dump
(64KB), or a complete memory dump. By default, a memory dump overwrites
the previous one unless you disable this feature by clearing the
Overwrite check box.

The
Settings button under the Performance heading opens the Performance
Options dialog box.

Adjust Advanced Performance Options

Click
the Advanced tab in the Performance Options dialog to view or change
processor scheduling or virtual memory settings. By default, processor
scheduling is configured to provide best performance for programs. If
you are configuring a system used primarily to perform services such as
printer spooling, click Background Services.

To
change the location and size of the paging file, click Change in the
Virtual Memory section of the Advanced tab. This opens the Virtual
Memory dialog. By default, Windows 7 automatically selects the location
and size of the paging file. To select size or location manually, clear
the Automatically Manage Paging File Size for All Drives checkbox. You
can then select which drive (or drives) you want to use for paging. To
disable the paging file on any drive, click No Paging File, and click
Yes on the warning dialog that appears. To set up a system managed
paging file on a different drive, click the drive and select System
Managed Size. To set up up a custom paging file on any drive, click
the drive, click Custom Size, and enter the values for minimum and
maximum size. Click OK to continue. You will be prompted to restart
your system if you change any of page file settings.

Tip

Generally,
there’s little benefit to changing the location of the paging file
unless you have two or more physical hard disks and the non-system
physical hard disk is faster than the system hard disk, or if the
system hard disk has limited space (less than 15% of its capacity
available).

Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

The Data Execution Prevention tab of the Performance Options dialog box (see Figure 32)
configures settings that prevent malicious applications from executing
programs in protected areas of RAM. Protected areas of RAM, supposedly
reserved for the OS and other programs that are running, can
potentially be invaded by malware, which then tries to load and execute
itself in the legitimate memory space.

Figure 32. Use the Data Execution Prevention tab to manage DEP.

Environment Variables

The
Environment Variables button on the Advanced tab of the System
Properties dialog box opens the Environment Variables dialog box. This
interface is used to define user and system variables. These include TEMP and TMP, which point to storage locations where Windows can create temporary files. It also defines the PATH,
which is the list of folders into which Windows looks to find programs
and software components.

Windows Directory Is Overflowing

If
the storage volume where your main Windows directory resides is
becoming full, you can perform three operations to improve performance
and keep the risk of insufficient drive space to a minimum. First, move
the paging file to a different volume on a different hard drive . Second, define the TEMP and TMP variables to point to a \Temp
folder you create on a different volume on a different hard drive.
Third, through Internet Options, define a location for the temporary
Internet files within the alternate \Temp
folder. After rebooting, the new locations will be in use. However, you
may need to delete the old files from the previous temporary file
location (typically \Users \<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\). Don’t forget to change permissions on the new \Temp folder to permit access by the group Users.

Using
a different hard disk for the paging file and temporary files,
particularly if it’s connected to a different ATA/IDE host adapter than
the system hard disk or uses the SATA interface, will provide better
performance than using a different partition on the system hard disk.